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Sunday, July 5, 2009

WCLT - Now, for the rest of the story

When I wrote about WCLT news reporting effort by Bill Clifford and his 2.5-person staff, I tacked on a riff about local owners. I mentioned the Spencer family but omitted Bob Pricer, who owns 51 percent of the corporation and has been the WCLT kingpin for longer than I’ve lived in Newark.

On reconsideration of how my essay might have been improved regarding WCLT’s who’s who, I asked Bill Clifford a few questions and he wrote such a great response - and threw in many extras - that I’m letting him tell the story in his own words, almost verbatim ...

“I didn’t know any of the Spencer’s had any shares. But your info proves they are minority stock holders. Bob’s wife, Dottie is not a Spencer. Tom Rogers was the first President of WCLT, he was married to Marian Spencer. Tom died in about 1976 or so, and he was the majority stock owner from 1947 to his death. Marian gave Bob her proxy so he controlled (and still does) the stock ownership. With that proxy, he paid Marian off over a number of years. As far as I know, Bill Rogers is still alive...and living in Virginia or Maryland. (Tom Rogers was Woody Hayes football coach at Denison) (Tom was also Gerald R. Ford’s commander in WWII). Tom died while Jerry was President.

“Bob Pricer was here on day one - August 2, 1947. Have you ever heard of anyone staying at the same place for 62 years?

“We’re not planning anything big for WCLT FM at age 62, but I will be writing a little tribute to Bob and WCLT FM. Bob has been a second father to me for about 50 years. I started after graduating in 1968, by rewriting news headlines in the afternoon. Ray Luther was news director back then. Ray died a few years ago. I have worked for WCLT five different times for about a total of 18 years.

“... Bob has done every job there is at WCLT in 62 years. His commitment to improving education within the Newark School System has been unwavering. He served as President of the Newark School Board back in the 60’s and 70’s.

“Bob is now 86. His mind is sharp. He still drives, and is at the station, along with Dottie, at least a couple of times a week. He keeps up with everything that’s going on.

“The one thing I like to tell people is this: WCLT FM, with 50,000 watts of power remains independently owned and operated by Newark people on the fringe of the 16th largest metro area in the USA. WCLT AM is part of this operation too as a talk-radio and news station. AM is 500 watts and the signal covers the Newark-Heath and Granville areas.

“In December of last year (2008) I sent an e-mail to Doug, reminding him, January 21, 2009 would be the 50th anniversary of the Great Ohio Flood 1959. He asked me to write some stories which I did. Doug asked me to be a stringer for WCLT. Which took me about 10-sec to say yes.

“One thing led to another. The afternoon news editor moved on to a job in county government. That job was open, at around Christmas time 2008 and I told Doug I was interested. He and news director Eric Brown were set on hiring me. I went to Doug again, and to be upfront with him, I advised him I was a diabetic, and spent about $1,000 on medicine out of my own pocket every month, and becoming part of their employee health care plan would cause a steep rise in their health care costs, and employee costs.

“So Doug said to me, how about if you run the news department. His plan was to pay me as a consultant, and I would pay the Social Security and Medicare taxes at the end of the year. There was still one little bump in the road. Since 1986 I have been a stringer with the Dispatch. Neither Doug nor the Dispatch had any problems with it, in fact both ends thought that’s a winning combination. So I started - February 2 - Ground Hog Day.

“I do my story writing from home. I am at the station 4-5 times a week. I am not on the air regularly because with diabetes I cannot talk as well with a dry mouth at times, and a very light stroke or heart attack in 1997. I recorded all of our April Fools stories for this year. And, record a couple of stories a week.

“Eric Brown is news director and Glenn Forbes is news editor. They both work for me. And as you have noticed things are changing. I hear about our improved news operation several times a week. I have also been working to establish a link with stringers and tipsters.”

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